6-9 December 2024

Leader: Tony Quayle

Slogging up the steep face from the carpark to the top of the Mōkai Patea Range in the hot sun is hard work. Especially while watching Jacqui and Marcia pulling ahead, making it look like a mere stroll.

That climb certainly drained me, and by the time we reached Ironbark Hut I was knackered, in no condition to face the prospect of continuing on to Lake Colenso that day. Julie, June and Sue were happy to call it a day too, while Jacqui, Marcia and Peter pushed on to complete the day’s plan.

We had very pleasant company that night at Ironbark: a group of five, two fathers and their collective three sons, on the fourth night of an extended Ruahine tour. Although it’s always nice to have a hut to ourselves, it’s also a treat to share a camp with such friendly and considerate people. Sue was able to nab the last bunk in the hut, and June learned how much condensation can form inside a bivvy bag, while Julie and I slept soundly under my spacious fly. The fathers and sons group headed off to Maropea Forks on Saturday, allowing us to take over the hut before heading off on what turned out to be a very pleasant day walk in glorious weather.

Just upstream of the hut we took the high level route through some lovely beech forest to Otukota Hut, where we enjoyed a leisurely lunch. The previous time I’d walked the river downstream to Otukota it was quite high, and dirty, making for slow and cold travel. This time it was much easier, with sparkling clear water providing mostly easy travel back to Ironbark. We had visitors that night too, hundreds of them, the swarmy, bitey kind of visitors. Sandflies that invaded the hut and needed to be repelled with spray cans of smelly substances. [A much more appealing visitor, by the way, was a blue duck that put in an appearance each evening as it made its way from the river to an apparent home under the hut. Sue spotted it on our first night and I finally got to see it completing its nightly journey just on bedtime Sunday night.]

Sunday’s mission was an explore up the Unknown Stream. We didn’t get terribly far though, as the steep and uncertain route of waterfall bypass track didn’t have much appeal. Posing for group selfies choreographed by June were more fun, then back to the Ironbark Hut to find Jacqui, Marcia and Peter in residence. Here’s what Peter had to say about their journey:

“After arriving at Ironbark Hut, there was discussion amongst the group about whether to carry on to Colenso Hut as planned. While most of the group decided that the day had been tough enough and a relaxing sunny afternoon looked promising, Peter, Jackie and Marcia decided to carry on.

Crossing the river beside the hut eliminated the walk back to the bridge and it was straight into a 400 m climb up the steep spur. It was hot, energy sapping work and it was relief after 90 min to get up to 900 m and then amble along the track towards Colenso. The track dropped down a bit towards the Mangatera River and there was a 10 min diversion around a slip just before the track leading to Unknown Campsite. It was getting late, and at the Unknown junction it said 1 hour to go, so we popped in some high energy liquorice allsorts and lengthened the stride, getting to the hut just before 9pm. Peter was all muddy, having been submerged (to the amusement of the girls) thigh-deep in one of the boggy spots on the way. After a quick wash and dinner, it was straight to bed – luxuriously spreading out with the hut to ourselves.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and we left early knowing we had another big day. After a quick detour down to see the stunning lake, we retraced our steps (15 min quicker!) to the junction and climbed up 200 m (enjoying some nice views of the lake) then down again, followed by a nice walk in and beside the stream to the Unknown campsite. This is a delightful spot, worth coming back to camp. After this, it was another long, hot steady climb to Puketaramea, often disappearing into the ferns and scrub that are reclaiming the track. We received a text from the others to say they were doing a day walk loop to Otukota Hut. Given we knew Maropea Forks Hut would be full of trampers we had met at Ironbark, we decided to add another hour to our day and head to Otokota for the night. The decent from Puketaramea seemed to take a long time, especially with a nasty little 150 m climb back up to pt 993 thrown in for good measure. It was with some relief to finally get to the Ironbark turnoff and then it was a steep decent to the Maropea river. We had a nice stop and wash in the river then headed up the rather dodgy track to the hut and enjoyed the rest of the sunny afternoon around the hut. We all had a great night's sleep, again with the hut to ourselves.

Sunday dawned nice and fine again, and we enjoyed a very pleasant walk down the Maropea River back to Iron Bark, joining up with others again before lunch.”

Our Sunday afternoon mission, minus Peter, was downstream to the Mangatera junction. Along the way, a startled and horrified June discovered the motherlode of the local sandfly population. Although no one was eager to conduct comprehensive observations, it appears the arrival of our warm, mammalian bodies thrilled the wee beasties into vacating their pupae for a rare feast. We quickly moved on. The river forks a little further on prompted another selfie session, until another cloud of thirsty insects prompted us to head back to the hut and a refreshing swim in the pool just downstream.

As forecast, the weather deteriorated on Monday, but there was only one short stretch of our walk out where we copped some wind and rain.

Those on the trip were:

Jacqui Marshall, Julie James, Marcia Goode, Peter Davis, Sue Pate, Tony Quayle, Yingjun Shelton